Adam Ant's pirate boots and shirt, badges for the landmark rave club Shoom and Katherine Hamnett's slogan T-shirts take centre stage at the V&A exhibition Club to Catwalk, which examines clubbing in early eighties London, and how it impacted on contemporary fashion.

Claire Wilcox, the show's curator, says it is about providing a different view of this most divisive of decades. "It's not about Dynasty," she said. "There are very few shoulder pads in the exhibition. This is the cooler, more eclectic look of London."

The exhibition space in the museum's fashion galleries is divided into two sections, Catwalk on the ground floor, and Club upstairs. "I like exhibitions that gave an element of discovery," said Wilcox. "Here you go from the day to the night and arrive at a club." The low lighting – essential in a museum where archive pieces have to be kept in particular conditions – has the additional effect of providing an after-dark atmosphere.

The exhibition, which was five years in the making, will run concurrently for a month with David Bowie Is, the V&A's most successful show in term of visitor numbers. "Sometimes it's about putting your finger up to the wind to see what's in the zeitgeist," said Wilcox. "Bowie was a hero for this [1980s] generation. It would be a great afternoon to visit both."

The cases downstairs are an instant throwback for those in their 40s or above. There are Hamnett's slogan T-shirts and brightly coloured prints by Betty Jackson. One case, of eveningwear, looks straight out of Melanie Griffiths' Bonfire of the Vanities wardrobe – a black sequinned backless Bruce Oldfield gown and an Anthony Price white taffeta asymmetrical sculptural cocktail dress from 1986.

As for the alternative, the early eighties in the capital boasted a fertile club scene. Nights like Taboo, Cha Chas at Heaven and the Blitz, and a clientele of dressed-up clubheads such as Leigh Bowery, Princess Julia and Trojan, were hugely inspirational to the designers who attended them. A quote from John Galliano, in a case showing the now disgraced designer's early work, reads simply: "The club scene fed me."

The subcultures explored include familiar ones like New Romantic (see that pirate shirt and stagewear worn by Toyah Wilcox), Goth and Rave, represented with Vivienne Westwood's spring/summer 1985 collection complete with that badge from Shoom.

Then there are more obscure ones, ripe for discovery by a new generation of fashion students. Hard Times – a masculine, rockabilly-influenced look of studs and ripped jeans – appeared "in reaction to the exuberant New Romantic era", said Wilcox. One pair of jeans donated by Dylan Jones, now editor of GQ magazine, is particularly shredded. Elsewhere, High Camp shows the acceptance of gay culture. A Dress for a Man designed by Juliana Sissons in 1982 appears along a purple bodysuit with penis sheath. Cornelius Brady, who donated the design, wore it to clubs but also the supermarket.

A taster of what these clubs were like comes at climax of the exhibition. Inside a dark space, a film from archive footage by visual artist Jeffrey Hinton plays across 10 screens. It features footage of designers Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier, and milliner Stephen Jones at clubs as well as performers like Divine, Bowery and Boy George, all to a soundtrack of contemporary dancefloor favourites. Wilcox said members of her team kept getting lost there while putting up the exhibition: "I'd find them in there, dancing."

• Club to Catwalk, from 10 July 2013 to 16 February 2014 at the V&A, London

• This article was amended on 11 July 2013 to remove a photograph of an outfit that was described in the caption as "Adam Ant's pirate outfit". The picture was in fact not of the clothing described in the article as Ant's pirate outfit, which is in the Club to Catwalk exhibition at the V&A; it was of his Prince Charming outfit, which is on permanent display in the V&A's theatre and performance galleries.